It Is What It Is
and what it is is music that holds you tight and helps you process all those feelings
Couple of days ago, I was on the bus on my way back home, listening to What A Devastating Turn Of Events by Rachel Chinouriri – I always listen to albums as a whole, I can’t ever get myself to only hear one song and leave the rest, if it comes as a package, I’ll always experience it as such. Robbed started to play at some point and I knew what would come next, I would have to hide some tears, yet another time again.
I know this song and the full project way too well now. I’ve been listening to the artist’s debut album a surprising amount of time since May, when it first came out. And yes, It’s still that devastating. Each and every time. This project is my personal – and proper – introduction to Rachel Chinouriri’s sound and I’m really glad I pre saved it when she was kindly asking everybody to do so, months ago.
As other more or less chronically online people, I first heard about the artist when her single My Darling went viral on Tik Tok but I never got myself to listen to more of her. I got curious only recently after hearing Never Need Me and becoming somehow obsessed with the song – and of course with the music video casting Florence Pugh. Learning that an album was about to come out got me even more interested.
What A Devastating Turn Of Events is a 14 track long project where Rachel Chinouriri sings about identity, body image, relationships, love, loss, grief and mental health with a whispery, soft but yet powerful voice.
She delivers her lines with so much vulnerability and frankness while we follow her as she discovers more of herself, remembering her past experiences and processing them while also sharing intimate stories and moments from people in her life. The production is well detailed, with every instrument having its own place and not clashing with any other nor the artist’s voice. This creates a light sonic experience where one can hear every layer of the tracks and experience them to the fullest.
On this project, Rachel Chinouriri's voice becomes one with an outstanding music production where the instruments and the compositions are supporting every emotion she conveys. We can also experience her unique sound mixing indie, pop and rock paired with melodies that stick in one's mind so easily – I could not help myself but hearing The Cranberries, Imagine Dragons and Coldplay in how the music production was done on this album.
What A Devastating Turn Of Events is such a beautiful piece of work in the sense that it presents itself as a compilation of songs that everyone can relate to. The album gives to its listeners this feeling of nostalgia where heavy and serious lyrics are balanced with funny and even silly ones. The artist uses an accessible language that allows the audience to make each story theirs. There’s this freedom to add your own layer to the story depicted or the subject the artist is singing about. We all have a version of these moments in our personal lives. We all experience difficult heartbreak, struggles to let go, death and loss. We all want a love that feels easy. We all live through pain, self doubt and trauma. We are all human.
The fact that we all have our own way to relate to these subjects makes the album even more intimate to the listener, it hits even closer to home. It’s a brutally honest project that allows one to understand that you are not alone in this, in whatever you’re living behind closed doors. It’s allowing one to process feelings that may be hard to face or deal with, revealing issues that can’t go unnoticed anymore or bringing closure that has been needed for a long time – maybe that’s why I keep crying every time I get to listen to it.
Another aspect of my experience with this album that I find interesting is the difference that might arise between how an artist conceptualizes a project and how the audience receives it. When the place where the artist was while creating is not where the audience finds itself when experiencing the art in its final form for example.
I recently watched this video of Rachel Chinouriri explaining her creative process behind What A Devastating Turn Of Events and what each song means to her. And although most of what I felt and how I interpreted the songs and their lyrics was close to what the singer was trying to convey, I could not help but realize that for a couple of them, my personal understanding or how I relate to the tracks was also slightly or even completely different to the artist herself.
In my opinion, this can naturally happen because words can mean different things for people who are brought up differently and have been raised in diverse environments. And that’s also the beauty in songs, lyrics and even art in general. And that’s also part of why I appreciate this album so much and the care with which it has been made.
For me it’s important to have this opportunity to make art yours somehow and find yourself in it as well but it’s also so interesting to know where the artist comes from and where those two experiences come together or diverge. It adds a particular layer to the whole listening experience.
Rachel Chinouriri’s debut album is a project within which you can easily immerse yourself.
It gives room to feel and express whatever you feel again and again. To cry if you need to. To scream if you want to. To sit in silence and do absolutely nothing as you realize your worth and to let it sink in. It gives you words, very simple words, to voice those feelings and it holds you tight and stays here while you’re processing everything.
It says “yes it’s all devastating, but you’re not alone”.
It’s a project that I believe will age well, just like wine as it treats subjects that we as humans, will keep coming across in our lives and this project will still be here, arms open to comfort us.
Rachel’s sound is genuine and so refreshing and it brings so much color to the new alternative pop scene. I can’t wait for what the artist comes up with next – now that the healing is being done and that peace is made with the past.
Hey love, I just wanted to hop here and to say few words to you <3
Selective Taste is almost one year old (it’ll be one year in September precisely that I posted for the first time here and time flies so much, it’s unbelievable!). It’s also my own birthday soon AND you are now a cute 100 here reading my little and big silly opinions. I just wanted to say thank you so much for being here.
I’m really grateful for you. — Moone
thanks for the reminder to listen to this album again! i've only played it once since the release date, but i did enjoy it and had been meaning to come back to it.
I loved this album!